REDESIGNMENT | #BWWM | RomePi™

9 ɤ DECEPTION (BWWM) 📋

-SURPRISE... SURPRISE-

PRESENT

With one battle won, Honor strolled with the owner and beamed at every detail he seemed quite proud to point out.

They walked side-by-side in a manner that permitted her to indulge in each open floor plan. Honor's beliefs were reinforced with each step, brief discussion, and pause. Nothing was needed in these spaces. Just the thought of changing any element in these rooms made her feel a growing sense of remorse because they were so carefully crafted to elicit tranquility from any inhabitant.

"Mr. Vasilev, would you mind if we discuss this project for a moment?" Honor stopped briefly to better wrap her mind around her reason for today's visit.

"Sure." He replied as they made their way down the decadent staircase to the first floor.

"I'm not sure what it is that... hmm... you would like for me to do here. To make unnecessary changes to your home would be criminal." She confessed.

Hiro stared at her as if he found her statement to be somehow confusing, so Honor clarified for him what her statement meant.

"Your home is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I expected to walk through the 'Antebellum Period', but this experience was truly unique in its attention to Japanese cultural philosophy. I never expected to see recreations of the Sōtatsu's Fūjin Raijin-zu of the Genroku era, the Ogata Kōrin's Kōhakubai-zu during the nineteenth-century part of the Edo period, and I couldn't help but appreciate the delicately captured reproduction of the Kanō Tan'yu, Spring Landscape from the Kanō School in Edo." She said a mouthful as she pointed out some of the astounding re-creations that were present in different rooms along the way. The few works she mentioned were so breathtaking, that she found herself panting and even elated to have witnessed them.

In truth, this was the first occasion when she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to encourage an owner to alter what was already in place.

"Who said they were re-creations?" That was all he said. Nothing more was discussed. He simply made it clear that the protected Japanese art in his home was supposed to be original.

Because Honor knew these works to be housed in the Japanese Museum Of Modern Arts, at first, Honor figured he was pulling her leg. The look on his face, however, suggested he was incapable of joking around as she suspected.

"It's impossible for you to own such authentic pieces." She stated aloud as her fingers drifted up to her lips.

Honor knew it was illegal to own such culturally significant paintings and had no intention of voicing her concern before the words slipped from her lips.

On cue, a storm brewed right before her eyes, and that was the very warning that let on how unwise it would be to question him further about how he had procured the art based on his silence and the way his eyes hinted that she was out of place. Honor was quite sure she was treading on dangerous ground for vocalizing her beliefs.

Without so much as a blink or flinch in his posture, the owner's words sent an icy chill down her spine as he turned to face her directly with a sinister grin meant to shut down any response or comeback that might have carelessly slipped from her lips.

"Let's just say I have connections you would never be able to appreciate or and simply leave it at that." The words were a calculated warning that continued discussion about the art pieces was off-limits and quite dangerous to anyone who was insistent on questioning the legitimacy of their presence in his home.

With the not-so-subtle warning, Hiro led Honor back to the point from which the tour began. He continued to explain to her that he wasn't interested in too many outlandish changes to his home but for the sake of balance in his household, some changes were required.